Wireline transceivers are ubiquitous in a variety of applications, such as communication infrastructures, data centers and terminal chipsets. Wireline transceivers are responsible for connecting the processing core of communication-based integrated circuits (e.g., integrated circuits associated with switching fabric, traffic managers, network processors, and so forth) with the outside world. In general, a given wireline transceiver serializes outgoing data that is communicated from the processing core and de-serializes incoming data for the processing core. The wireline transceivers may communicate with the outside world over various communication media, including copper traces on printed circuit boards (PCBs), optical multiple mode fiber (MMF) fibers, single mode fiber (SMF) fibers, copper cables, and so forth. In general, the transceiver's processing rate (e.g., the symbol rate) may be significantly faster than the operational frequency of the processing core of the integrated circuit. As a result, the wireline transceiver may perform a variety of functions for the integrated circuit in addition to serializing and de-serializing data, such as functions pertaining to channel equalization; clock and data recovery; and retiming.